Having tried my 456 is various guises for my commute (geared, SS, 69er SS) I always fall back to my Explosif SS, so the 456 has gone. Time to replace it with something better suited to the job in hand.
My daily commute is about 10 miles, mainly on London's tow paths (pretty good surfaces, pretty rude pedestrians). The Explosif is good for really bad weather (snow and the like), but I fancy something better suited to reasonable surfaces ... but also capable of turning to a bit of mild doubletrack or Epping Forest singletrack in summer.
I was eyeing up a [b]Genesis Day One Alfine 11[/b] (low maintenance for the commuting) ... then I got distracted by the [b]Singular Peregrine[/b] (the Gryphon may be a brilliant tool for the job but it looks hideous to my eyes) ... then I thought that maybe a 29er would give more flexibility and the [b]Singular Swift[/b] looks drop dead gorgeous ... then I drooled over the [b]Pace RC129[/b]. But proper offroad I can do on my MTBs so maybe I should stick to a CX bike or similar.
Now completely undecided, so time to ask for recommendations.
Genesis day one.
I was using it on a daily 30 mile round trip commute across Edinburgh (not the flattest place).
It cruises at about 18-20 mph and is bomb proof and surprisingly good off road.
When left locked up it doesn't attract unwanted attention either.
Get one you wouldnt regret it.
day one +1
I'm very happy with mine.
The only thing I'd say about the alfine, is that if you're quick, you might run out of gears on the fast stuff. The chap I ride with sometimes who is as quick as me on the flat, hits that top gear and starts spinning quickly when we're chaining it along the flat roads. Probably around 20-22 mph.
New budget Genesis CDF coming out shortly. Cotic >X<?
Thanks for the Day One support. I'm anything but fast so the gearing would not be an issue.
Looked at the Cotic & CDF, but want to be able to run SS or hub gears without a tensioner.
Thanks Iain, but not for me - I want steel with EBB or sliding / horizontal dropouts, hence the original Genesis / Singular / Pace shortlist.